Clothes to Remember

We may have the next Ilene Beckerman on our hands!

Let me explain ...

Kate can remember specific outfits that she wore specific places MONTHS ago! I have been flabbergasted recently by her clothing memory. Maybe this is pretty normal--I don't know. But I am still surprised at her ability to recall such details at such a young age.

Back in about 1995 or so, Ilene Beckerman came out with a book called Love, Loss and What I Wore. I happened to be writing for the Johnson City Press at the time and wrote a review on the book, which I LOVED. It basically chronicled her life by, well, what she wore. In her book she included sketches of outfits worn for important life events as well as some favorite ensembles--in addition to the memories asscoiated with them. It was a tribute to a lifetime of fashion and how what we wear can affect our memories, etc. At the time I was majoring in communications (journalism concentration, of course) and minoring in apparel merchandising. I hoped to write for a fashion magazine. (SO glad that didn't work out, let me tell you!) But anyway ...

So today I was going through some of Kate's size 2 (and some 3) clothing. A friend from church was coming over to see if there was anything her daughter (about a year younger than Kate) could use. I was not organized enough to participate in a consignment sale this year, so this was a good opportunity for me to organize Kate's wardrobe and to get her closet ready for fall and winter.

I held up a yellow alligator outfit from Gymboree. I was hoping it would still fit (it didn't) because she only wore it a few times, and it is so cute. I held it up, and Kate said, "New friend!" I was shocked because she wore this outfit on one of our first play dates with our neighbors back in March. At the time, Kate called their little girl, Julia, her "new friend." :o) So I asked Kate what she meant by "new friend" today, and she said, "Julia! I wore that with Julia!" (Or something like that--I can't remember exactly, as it's been a long day of potty-training.) :o) This was back in March, I think.

She also has these heart pants that she started calling her "HippoHopp" pants recently. She wore them to HippoHopp several months ago (but also wore them other places). Then there is the elephant shirt that we came across while doing laundry. "I wore that at Aunt Robin's house," she said. Right again!

Just before bed, we were putting her room back together after I pretty much tore out her closet today. A hot pink Gymboree shirt with candy bears on it was at the top of a tote of clothes for her to wear this fall and winter. She saw it and said, "I can wear a bear shirt like Anna-Claire wore!" OK, her cousin Anna-Claire had a shirt just like this last year or the year before (not the same actual shirt, as ours is a size 3T and still NWT--I am a buy-ahead person--though I think we had this same shirt in a 2T). Anyway, I am not even kidding! I cannot believe that Kate remembered that Anna-Claire had a shirt like that--and wore it months ago.

Back in July when I took Kate to have her 2-year photos made, I pulled out a Hanna Andersson dress that I bought last year for her to wear this year. She had only worn it once or twice, and it was a great dress for her to wear for her pictures, I thought. "Jamie has this dress!" she said. And she was right. Her friend Jamie has the same dress--but Kate hadn't been around Jamie when she'd been wearing it for a while.

Just yesterday I was wearing my Alzheimer's Association shirt that has the word "WALK" across the front. (This isn't the "Team Grammy" shirt that I wore to the walk, but a different one.) Kate asked me what it spelled (common question for her these days), and I said, "Walk." To which she replied, "With Grammy!" (I know this one isn't exactly about remembering the clothes, but I wanted to include it anyway.)

I know there are more examples of clothing-related memories, but that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

OK, so maybe this is all normal and and not a big deal, but I am pretty amazed at this kid's memory. And if I appear to be bragging, well, this is my blog and most of the stuff here is for our kids and family anyway. So there. Just watch what you wear around my daughter. She will remember.